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April 11-12, 2019: Denver NewsTrain, hosted by Colorado State University and the Colorado Press AssociationApril 30, 2019: Apply to host a NewsTrain workshop in 2020. Sept. 9-10, 2019: News Leaders Association Conference at New Orleans Marriott
Sept. 27, 2019: Milwaukee NewsTrain, hosted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Oct. 18-19: Austin NewsTrain, hosted by GateHouse Media and the Austin American-Statesman
October 2019: Albuquerque NewsTrain, hosted by the University of New Mexico in conjunction with the New Mexico Press Association

If you have news about news, news leaders or newsrooms you'd like to share, send details here.

Because of NewsTrain’s emphasis on immediately usable skills, attendees often rate its interactive training as 4.5, with 5 as highly effective and useful.

“Ya’ll ARE AWESOME. I didn’t want to leave the lectures to use the bathroom because they were so good,” wrote Phoenix NewsTrain attendee Chase Budnieski, a journalism student at Arizona State University.

Theagenda (PDF)was customized for Denver by a host committee of localjournalists led by Colorado State University’s Department of Journalism and Media Communication.

The concurrent CPA convention, April 11-13, will feature an additional day of training, meetings and keynote speakers, as well asa job fair,plus awards ceremonies for boththe association’sColorado Better Newspaper Contest and the Colorado Associated Press EditorsandReporters contest.

#DenverNewsTrain will be the 93rd such workshoporganized by the Associated Press Media Editors. APME, a nonprofit group of newsroom leaders, has sponsored NewsTrain since 2003, training more than 7,500 journalists and visiting every U.S. state and three Canadian provinces. NewsTrain last visited Denver in 2005 and Colorado (in Colorado Springs) in 2013.

Other NewsTrains in 2019 will be in:

Milwaukeeon Sept. 27,

Austinon Oct. 18-19, and

AlbuquerqueinOctober.

To learn when registration opens and trainers are namedfor these fall workshops, please provide an email address:bit.ly/NT2018-19.

AP brings fact-checking to the local and state levels

The AP’s fact-checking team is launching a trial effort to do more fact-checking on the state and local levels, not just the national and international levels, and we seek your help: Please tell us some newsmaker claims or questionable stories circulating online that you think we should research.

Specifically, we’re looking for exact claims from local newsmakers — from any arena, including politics, business, sports, entertainment, etc.—that have been expressed publicly. We’re also hoping to hear about misinformation that is spreading across the internet and has the potential to affect your communities.

We might handle the results of our checking in the form of AP Fact Checks, which examine the veracity of statements from newsmakers; or Not Real News items, which we use to debunk false information. We might also do a straight news story or an explainer.

Again: AP journalists will do the fact-checking, working from proposals that we ask you to send our way.

Apply by April 30 to bring APME’s NewsTrain digital training to your town in 2020

Apply by April 30 for a chance toexperiencethe learning, morale boost and fun of a NewsTrainworkshopinyour townnext year.

The first step is to put together a tentative host committee of representatives from local journalism organizations and apply. Successful host committees work hand-in-glove with the NewsTrain staff over six months to plan and promote their workshops.

The practical skills taught are customized to the needs of journalists in your region and designed to be used immediately. Registration is just $75 to $85 for NewsTrain, with registration fees retained by APME.

NewsTrain provides trainers who are accomplished journalists teaching what’s happening on the front lines of digital journalism. Recent trainers have come from The New York Times, NowThis News, The Boston Globe, The Sacramento Bee and USA Today, as well as Arizona State University and the University of Southern California.

The host committee’s financial obligation includes supplying food for a one-day, 1.5-day or two-day workshop attracting 100. It should seek local sponsors to cover that cost, which can run $1,500 to $3,000. The host committee also markets the workshop regionally and secures a venue, usually a university site.

The payback is smarter, more engaged and enthusiastic journalists, journalism students and journalism educators in your region.

“Hosting a NewsTrain gives you the opportunity to tailor high-quality training that will be accessible and affordable for your staff,” said Angie Muhs, executive editor of the State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois, and president of APME. “It’s worth the investment of your time and effort.”

Since 2003, Associated Press Media Editors (APME) has produced 92 NewsTrains in the United States and Canada, training more than 7,500 journalists. APME will merge with the American Society of News Editors in 2019 to form the News Leaders Association.

Help ASNE get its annual Newsroom Employment Diversity Survey into the right hands!

The American Society of News Editors is preparing to send out their annual Newsroom Employment Diversity Survey soon and they need your help! If you work for a newsroom/news organization, please email dkahn@asne.org with someone they can contact within your organization to answer the survey! ASNE would like to get as much data from as many newsrooms/news organizations as possible, but they can't do that without your help!

Fall conference to focus on leadership training and skills development – REGISTER NOW!

We are excited to announce that in 2019, the Associated Press Media Editors and American Society of News Editors will be joining forces. With this merger, ASNE and APME will become NLA, the News Leaders Association. This is an exciting time and our new organization will continue to advocate for strong leadership, a diverse and inclusive workforce and defend against challenges to the First Amendment. We ask that you join us and provide your expertise and leadership as we move forward this year.

The 2018 ASNE-APME conference in Austin, Texas was a big success. This year, we'll be in New Orleans, Louisiana, Sept. 9-10. Registration for the 2019 News Leaders Association Conference is open.Register here.

HOTEL INFORMATION

A terrific group rate is available at the New Orleans Marriott for $179 per night. To book a room, click here or call 504-581-1000 and mention the ASNE-APME event.

Sunshine Week 2019 is March 10-16!

We are currently updating the Sunshine Week website!

We're seeking editorial cartoons and columns to post to the Toolkit for use by anyone during Sunshine Week 2019. If you have any content you'd like to contribute, or events you'd like to add to our calendar, let us know!

Editors on call

Would you like some advice from an experienced newsroom leader?

APME has put together a list of on-call editors willing to offer you strategic and practical advice on nearly two dozen different topics, from ethics to legal issues, to digital best practices, to upfront story coaching and newsroom budgeting.

We don’t want to replace the conversations you have in your own newsrooms, but we can be a resource when no one else is around to ask, when you need a second opinion, when you wonder if there’s another way or if you just need help framing the right questions.

The members of APME bring decades of journalism experience to the table.

We’ve spent years helping each other cope with a fast-changing industry, learning to produce and showcase our best journalism on multiple platforms. We’ve become adept at adapting while remaining committed to our watchdog role, to reflecting our diverse communities in our newsrooms and to ethical truth telling.

Now we want to broaden the circle and help develop newsroom leaders from coast to coast to strengthen journalism for all. You don’t need to be a member of APME; we’re here to help everyone.

Have journalism news you can share? Send current links and any preamble here and we'll share them with journalists, each week.Thanks for participating.

EDITORS IN THE NEWS

Matt Thompson hired as new editor in chief for Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting

EMERYVILLE, Calif. – The Center for Investigative Reporting has appointed Matt Thompson as its new editor in chief.

Thompson will oversee CIR’s award-winning newsroom, which publishes its work through the revealnews.org website, the Reveal public radio show and podcast produced with PRX, short- and long-form television and documentary projects, and in collaboration with news organizations across the country.

Thompson currently is executive editor of The Atlantic, where he oversees major editorial projects and new initiatives, such as the launch of the magazine’s podcasting unit, membership strategy and talent development teams. In his time as deputy editor of TheAtlantic.com, he helped lead the magazine’s digital team through three record-breaking years of audience growth. Previously, he was director of vertical initiatives for NPR, where he created several broadcast and digital journalism teams, including Code Switch and NPR Ed. He is a former board member of the Center for Public Integrity, where he served for eight years.

The Post-Gazette’s controversial editorial director just took over the newsroom

The editorial director of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — who penned a controversial Martin Luther King Jr. Day editorial and was at the center of the firing of cartoonist Rob Rogers — has been named the paper’s new executive editor.

Keith Burris replaces David Shribman, a Pulitzer Prize winner who left the post late last year.

The announcement was posted in the PG newsroom and emailed to staff Monday afternoon, according the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, which represents some 150 newsroom employees.

The notice says effective immediately, Burris, the longtime editorial director of the Post-Gazette‘s sister paper in Toledo, Ohio, would be executive editor of the paper here. Burris, who was brought on to direct the Post-Gazette’s opinion page in March of last year, will continue to direct the merged opinion pages of both papers, the notice reads.

We’d like to announce the appointment of Justin Umberson as the new editor of the Ashland Tidings.

Justin will direct news coverage of both the Tidings and the Mail Tribune, where he’s worked in different capacities since 2016. He started as a copy editor, then was promoted to copy desk chief after Rosebud Media brought pagination back in-house. He became city editor of the Mail Tribune last November.

He has 10 years’ experience in newspapers, including as copy editor at the Corpus Christi Caller Times in Texas and news editor at the Wenatchee World in Washington.

IN MEMORIAM

Rex Wilson, who led the Peninsula Daily News’ coverage of local news for almost 17 years as its executive editor, has died. He was 70.

Wilson died Wednesday at his home in the Mexican town of Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara, of complications from a stroke and lung cancer. His wife, Olga, was at his side.

He and Olga moved from Port Angeles to Zapopan following Wilson’s retirement on Aug. 1, 2015. He had directed the PDN’s news and sports reporters, photographers, desk editors and layout staff since December 1998.

Working closely with then-editor and publisher John Brewer, Wilson oversaw the nuts and bolts of the PDN’s coverage of local events — and during his tenure these ranged from hospital fundraisers to the Makah whale hunt; City Council and School Board meetings to the arrest in Port Angeles of al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed Ressam; local court coverage to the slayings of Clallam County Sheriff’s Deputy Wally Davis and U.S. Forest Service officer Kristine Fairbanks and a mountain goat killing a hiker in Olympic National Park; county fairs and tractor pulls to Tse-whit-zen, “’Twilight’ Fever” and the removal of the Elwha River dams.

“Rex Wilson and local news. The two thoughts are inseparable,” said Brewer, who retired in October 2015.

APME: Lead. Nurture. Innovate.

OUR VISION

We foster newsroom leaders. We empower journalists to succeed. We cultivate ideas that work.

OUR MEMBERS

The Associated Press Media Editors is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization of newsroom leaders and journalism educators that works closely with The Associated Press to promote journalism excellence. Anyone with senior responsibilities in an AP-affiliated organization, and any journalism educator or student media leader, is invited to join.

OUR MISSION

APME advances the principles and practices of responsible journalism. We support and mentor a diverse network of current and emerging newsroom leaders. We champion the First Amendment and promote freedom of information. We train journalists to realize their aspirations and thrive in a rapidly changing environment. We promote forward-looking ideas that benefit news organizations and the communities they serve. We work closely with the Associated Press, the largest independent media operation in the world.

APME FOUNDATION

The APME Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization established in 1988 to receive tax-exempt gifts to carry out educational projects for the advancement of journalism. Proceeds help support NewsTrain, a regional, low-cost training opportunity around the country and other practical education tools promoting the First Amendment, innovation and diversity in newsrooms.